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Another Franklin County school district has withdrawn from the federal Race to the Top program.

The Whitehall school board voted unanimously tonight to pull out of the program, after school
leaders raised concerns about implementing new teacher and administrative evaluations this fall.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to make sure that something as important as teacher
and administrative evaluation is well developed and well implemented,” Superintendent Judy
Dobbert-Meloy said in an e-mail.

Districts participating in Race to the Top would have to implement the new evaluations
starting in the 2013-14 school year — a year before the rest of the state.

Under the system, student performance accounts for half of the teacher’s evaluation.

Whitehall joins Bexley, which withdrew from the program after discovering that the grants
weren’t enough to cover the requirements connected with the grant.

So far, Whitehall has spent about $400,000 in grant money. By withdrawing from the program,
the district is forfeiting nearly $358,000. That money will be redistributed to other districts
still participating in the program, Ohio Department of Education spokesman John Charlton said.

As of today, 94 districts and charter schools have backed out since they won the grant in
2010.